Mass Effect: Andromeda guide: Minerals and where to find them

Mass Effect: Andromeda’s eponymous galaxy is full of minerals (and tech and biology materials). You’ll use all of these to craft weapons, armor and upgrades for yourself and your Nomad. You’ll pick up things like the tech and biology materials from downed enemies — and if you loot your enemies regularly, you’ll rarely need to seek them out). You’ll need to seek out minerals, though, and that will take some work.

How to get minerals in Mass Effect: Andromeda

There are four ways to get minerals: You can buy them from vendors, find them in small nodes when you’re wandering around on foot, use your Nomad to mine them or find them while scanning space from the Tempest.

Vendors

Many vendors will have minerals available for sale (even at the buy/sell kiosk on the Tempest). Check the minerals tab — it’s the one with the diamond-shaped icon. The minerals available will vary by planet and will change with each visit. They’re going to be pretty expensive. If you’ve got credits to spare or only need a few units of a certain element, this is a pretty good solution. If you’re strapped for cash or need a lot of something, this is probably not the best approach for you.

On foot

There are small nodes of minerals scattered around every planet you visit. You’re not going to find a lot in one of these nodes, but some minerals — like cadmium or uranium — can only be found this way. It’s a pretty quick process to mine this way, so it’s a good idea to just pick up minerals whenever you happen across them.

Nomad

As you explore planets and unlock forward stations, you’ll also discover mining zones. Before you land on a planet, you can see what elements you might find there from the bridge of the Tempest . You’ll have to get close to one of these zones, then open the mining computer (and listen to SAM inform you that the area can be mined). Watch the graphs, and launch a mining drone when one of the elements’ graphs peaks.

Tempest

Your wanderings back and forth across the galaxy will bring you across a variety of anomalies, which Suvi will announce any time you’re near one. Some of these are mineral deposits. Things like comets or asteroids are usually good sources of minerals.

Planets and their minerals

Below, we’ve assembled a table of Mass Effect: Andromeda’s minerals and the planets where they’re most common. This isn’t an exhaustive list — there are some minerals you’ll find on foot, for example, that aren’t listed below — but the information below is where you’ll find the densest (or easiest to find) concentrations.